Exports of traditional and non-traditional fishing recovered last year, after showing declines since 2015, and recorded a growth of 31.5 percent over 2016, generating USD 2,844 million.

According to the management of Services and Extractive Industries of the Association of Exporters (ADEX), traditional fishing reached a value of USD 1,787 million, a figure that represents a participation of 62.8 percent and a growth of 41.7 percent year-on-year. This result was mainly due to higher shipments of fishmeal (USD 1,458 million), which increased by 46.7 percent due to higher catches of anchovy.

The most important destination of this heading was China, with imports for USD 1,176 million, 65.3 percent more than in 2016. Other markets were Vietnam (USD 72.6 million), Japan (USD 56.8 million), Taiwan (USD 41.6 million) and Chile (USD 32.5 million), among others.

Shipments of fishery products for direct human consumption (CHD) amounted to USD 1,056 million, an increase of 17.3 percent. The most important species in this subsector was giant squid (USD 405.6 million), whose sales grew by 24.7 percent and represented 38.3 percent of the total value of exports of non-traditional products. Its most important presentation was frozen, with USD 391.4 million, but it was also shipped in residual and canned flour.

Shipments of aquaculture products showed a slight growth of 6.5 percent, reaching USD 246.2 million. Shrimp was the main species, with sales of USD 164.1 million and year-on-year growth of 24.3 percent thanks to higher production.

On the other hand, foreign sales of scallops fell by 28.7 percent to USD 54.3 million, due to the mortality suffered as a result of the weather events that the country experienced.